April 30, 2010

It was a private dinner conversation among three friends. The topic: affirmative action and race. Stephanie Grace, a third-year law student, felt she had not made her position clear, so she followed up via e-mGrace wrote. “I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African-Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent". The lengthy e-mail, sent to her two dinner companions six months ago, ignited an Internet firestorm this week when it was leaked and first reported Wednesday by the legal blog abovethelaw.com, followed by other websites. Read more at:http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/30/e_mail_on_race_sparks_a_furor_at_harvard_law/

The annual President for a Day switch gives undergraduates a taste of the responsibilities of running the 4,800-student campus outside Philadelphia. It also reminds Harris of the challenges students face in balancing work and education. "It gives me a firsthand experience of what they go through every day," Harris said. "It makes me a better administrator in the long run." His student jobs have included leading campus tours, answering phones, filing paperwork and, of course, going to class. Student leaders, in turn, have used their temporary power to make admission decisions, reclaim faculty parking lots, offer free cake and "fire" favorite staffers to give them a day off. Read more at:http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/04/28/pa_college_president_switches_places_with_student/

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing. I'm afraid that's about to crash and burn. The question I'd ask: is the money that mass-marketing colleges are spending on marketing themselves and scaling themselves well spent? Are they organizing for changing lives or for ranking high? Read more at:http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/04/the-coming-meltdown-in-higher-education-as-seen-by-a-marketer.html

A new survey suggests the latest crop of applicants are thinking more of fattening their wallets than broadening their minds. The finding comes from a nationwide survey of 1,175 high school seniors by WiseChoice, a college guidance website. Asked to cite their reasons for going to college, the largest group, 80 percent, emphasized better job opportunities. A slightly smaller share strongly agreed with the statement, "to reach their goals in life," which at least sounds a little less mercenary. The next-most-popular reason was "to earn more." Farther down the list: "to broaden their mind and learn more" (69 percent strong agreement), and the "social experience of going to college" (51 percent). Read more at:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2010/04/survey_college_applicants_want.html?wprss=college-inc

April 29, 2010

The share of new high-school graduates enrolled in college reached a record high last year, likely reflecting the weak job market they faced. Some 70.1% of the 2.9 million new graduates between the ages of 16 and 24 headed to colleges and universities. College-enrollment rates have been rising gradually: In 2008, 68.6% of high-school graduates headed to college, up from 62.9% in 1999. But the poor economy, which has created a particularly tough labor market for young and uneducated workers, is amplifying the trend. Read more at:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703832204575210244203411342.html#mod=todays_us_page_one

It's the latest sign that things aren't what they used to be on California's college campuses. Students are signing up for fall classes, and on many California State University campuses they're bumping into new, tighter limits on the number of classes they can take. The policy change is more fallout from last year's state budget cuts, a 20 percent hit for California's public universities that prompted CSU to slash course offerings and left students at some schools piled up in hallways unable to find a seat. Heading into the fall, CSU is trying to smooth the course registration process and give students of all grade levels a better shot at getting the classes they need. Read more at: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/23/2699965/new-csu-system-reality-class-load.html#ixzz0mOcxzKQb

College leaders from this state aren't alone in trying to figure out how to navigate a massive erosion in public funding for their institutions. On Monday, the presidents, provosts and other top leaders from about 30 colleges in the Western United States met at the University of Washington to discuss their common experiences and to strategize about how to "reset" their finances. One idea, backed by UW President Mark Emmert, is to ask the federal government to step in and provide more money and support where states are falling short. Read more at:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011710524_collegefuture27m.html

April 28, 2010

Here was the challenge given to 200 University of Maryland students from a variety of majors: Abstain from social media for 24 hours. That meant no iPhone or text messaging. No laptops or netbooks. No Gchatting or Twittering. No e-mail and absolutely no Facebook. Ah, a return to simplicity. But just read the blogs these students wrote after the traumatic experience -- it's very easy to confuse these students with crack addicts who went cold-turkey, smokers not given the comfort of a patch while quitting, alcoholics forced to dry up. The university's new release on the study last week reported that some descriptions popped up over and over: "In withdrawal. Frantically craving. Very anxious. Extremely antsy. Miserable. Jittery. Crazy." Read more at:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/04/fighting_a_social_media_addict.html

It would be a disaster, Paul Vinette figures, to read from PowerPoint slides when he teaches his introduction to psychology class this fall at Anne Arundel Community College. Students might tolerate a droning lecture at 2 p.m. But at 2 a.m.? No, that's not a typo. Vinette will teach a psychology class from midnight to 3 a.m. Anne Arundel is not the first two-year school to offer late-night classes in response to booming demand. Bunker Hill Community College in Boston started such classes last year and others in Indiana, Missouri and Oregon have joined in. Two-year colleges across the country have tried every method imaginable to keep up with a 17 percent increase in enrollment this year. Read more at:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-ar-midnight-classes-20100426,0,657624.story

Students who are thinking about sleeping late and skipping that morning class may have a new incentive to roll out of bed at one Arizona university this fall. Northern Arizona University will install an electronic system that detects when each student with an ID card walks through the door to some large classrooms. The system will produce an attendance report for the instructor. The goal is to reduce the number of students who miss class, fall behind and drop out of school. But the proposal is already generating debate among students, some of whom say the university is going too far by introducing a "Big Brother" system to record attendance. Read more at:http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/04/27/20100427nau-student-attendance.html